Another New Favorite

 #39.  I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

I want the book to linger, to not taint my mind with any other book or video, so I'm sitting here, happy to have finished a book, but a bit melancholy that this one has ended.  Cassandra Mortmain keeps a series of journals over the course of a year between the ages of 17 and 18, capturing the characters in her life and the rundown castle they occupy in the English countryside (father, stepmother Topaz, older sister Rose, younger brother Thomas.)  They live in utter poverty, supported by the labor of a former servant's son, Stephen, work for a neighboring estate, none of the adults much inclined to work.  Her father wrote a novel many years before, of some acclaim, especially in America, but now keeps to himself; a possible tortured genius, or perhaps suffering from mental illness.  In desperation one night, Rose climbs up and makes a wish on a gargoyle for something to happen to change their fates, they really have no prospects, Rose even considers prostituting herself.  New, wealthy, American neighbors suddenly fall into their lives, and Rose is determined to marry one of them for money, if not for love.  Over the course of the year, it's a sea change for everyone, and the girl Cassandra becomes a woman.

Oh, I loved this book.  (Read after seeing a YouTube video from Spinster's Library, as one of her favorite books.)

August Update

I still have a bunch of library books checked out, but haven't felt much like reading this month.  Feeling restless, so only five books thus far, though I have begun a few others.  The Book Bingo thing ends on September 7th, and I am seven books away from a blackout.  I've read more than twenty four books since it began, but not in the right categories to count.  At any rate, for August, thus far:

#34.  Nobu - A Memoir, Nobu Matsuhisa.  

Both a memoir and advice on running a restaurant.

#35.  The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith.  

The first of the Tom Ripley books.  Will his luck run out in the future books?  I enjoyed the writing and the story, though, unlike some reviews, I didn't find him all that sympathetic, though it is a view into a life where someone makes choices different than I would, and again, seeing a different point of view from your own, different life choices, different outcomes, seeing that my ideas aren't the last word (not even for me, for how common is it to be the same person at 40 that you were at 3?)  Isn't that one of the gifts of reading?

#36.  Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan.  

Really enjoyed this.  Still haven't seen the movie.

#37.  We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, Samantha Irby.

Book of essays on her life.

#38. The Body - A Guide to Occupants, Bill Bryson.  

Fascinating.